


What Am I?

by TheFlamingNymph



Series: Broody Porcupine Snapshots [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Family Fluff, Feels, Forgive Me, Gen, Here Lies the Abyss Spoilers, Hurt/Comfort, Innocence, Loss of Parent(s), So much angst, What Have I Done, Why Did I Write This?, light fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2018-04-09 17:16:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4357652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFlamingNymph/pseuds/TheFlamingNymph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired after my last one-shot. </p><p>Fenris watching his daughter figure out where she fits, without being able to find the words to help her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Am I?

Her nose scrunches like her mother’s did as she looks in the mirror, running little fingers over round ears, a rosy bottom lip jutted out in a pout as she puzzles her latest quandry in front of the mirror. He can tell she’s looking back at him, he doesn’t need to see her to know she’s doing so, as she had a hundred times before. This has been a puzzle she’s been working on for weeks now, but she only has half the pieces. The fingers leave her ears to tangle in the black hair that hangs like a waterfall around her face and shoulders, wild and unchecked, tangled as soon as it’s brushed, as if a creature all it’s own. He can’t bind it for her, it’s the last piece that makes her mother stand out in her all the more, drowning the pieces of himself he knows are in the girl somewhere. He can’t explain to her why, not yet, not even after so long, so he simply takes the time to brush through her hair more carefully around the knots.

She’ll never truly know how much of her mother’s daughter she truly is, even as people tell the girl she’s more like him. That’s what started this after all, a well meaning comment from the captain of the guard brought the little girl’s hand to her rounded ears for the first time, and a puzzled little frown to her face. The ears confuse her the most, he’s noticed, and once he caught her asking the blood mage about it. The conversation got her no where except to a different topic, but she had been sufficiently distracted. She even attempted to ask the dog once, much to his amusement, as she insisted that everyone had told her the dog was smart enough to talk, but just didn’t.

She’s smarter than he’d like sometimes, finding things he’d rather not talk about. She’s unlike her mother in that, always questioning, always prodding, her eyes alight with curiosity. Eventually she learns that her aunt is more forthcoming, and badgers her more, but for the hard questions, those always come in the middle of a book as she perches in his lap. Finally, she wiggles around and pins him with eyes that match his in color, but are wholly her mother’s in shape. Her nose wiggles and scrunches as she figures out the words, knowing that careful words go a lot farther with him. Finally she settles on a statement instead of a question. _I’m not an elf,_ she says, but tugs one of his ears in a way that says _but you are._ He nods and waits for the rest to come, at her own speed as her brain still tries to complete the puzzle without enough pieces. _What am I?_ She asks, succumbing to the need for help.

_Proof that the world can be kind to me, in it’s own way._ His voice is thick and he leans in to kiss her nose so she can’t focus on the way his eyes water. Her nose scrunches like her mother’s, but she accepts the answer, and kisses his cheek where the wetness fell, little arms clinging around his neck.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't want to do this! But the idea took hold, and I couldn't stop. I didn't even sacrifice this Hawke in the fade, she survived! Why am I doing this. I love a good angst, way too much. I swear my neck Raisha/Fenris needs to be happier. I must write a happy one. Bright news, I think I'm going to do a series on them. I love them way too much. My scoundrelly assassin dork that she is. 
> 
> Comments and constructive criticism always welcome, kudos make me squee. Feel free to blame me for the feels. I blame me for the feels.


End file.
